re: explain to me why the Grove is as great as people make it out to be

The grove is fun, it's not some miraculous promised land that Ole Miss fans feel it is, but I can see how it feels that way for them.

If you can't have fun on a college football Saturday anywhere in the SEC then you're the issue, not the venue.

Its unique and worth the experience…but it’s absolutely overrated and wouldn’t want to do it game in and game out

Any school could replicate it if fans purposely decided to tailgate tent to tent and impose arbitrary rules (no flames, no music, no generators, no beer cans, etc)

Most just don’t because why cram yourself together and remove everything convenient and fun about tailgating? It’s impractical, mostly

Tons of hot women

Imagine an empty lot with some trees. Now fill it full of assholes.

It's like the quad in Tuscaloosa. You're just elbow to elbow with thousands of people.

Dunno what makes that enjoyable for people.

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I don't know about that. Not to totally derail the thread topic but they might have the finest coeds anywhere.
Can someone explain this phenomena?

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In the 50's and 60's Ole Miss had a run at the MS America Pageant. 3 winners in a short time and a just about had a top 3 finalist every year.

Rumor has it, that beauty queen hopefuls from all over the south and US started pouring into Ole Miss over the next decade. Now we are seeing the offspring of those dimes.

Lived in Oxford for a few year.

The City has done a great job of marketing. Game weekends are a huge deal for a city on the smaller side.

The conundrum is that it’s a much better gameday atmosphere when Ole Miss football sucks and the Grove is not packed wall to wall.

They put a lot of work into it, as it is very important to them.

It's the biggest social event in Mississippi, apparently.

Ultimately you're still just standing around outside drinking on a college campus.

I went to a good tailgate at the BYU game, on a hill, overlooking the stadium. I had plenty of free beer, and talked to some old Razorback greats who played around the time I was born. We were surrounded by 5 acres of other fans doing the same thing. Other areas of campus had comparable set-ups.

It's fun to tailgate, but it isn't anything life-changing. I've never understood the hype around the Grove, nor the emphasis. It's one of those things they want to be known for, and it isn't hard to portray it as something incredible if that's the main thing you have going on.

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We are limited by geography around DWRRS. Not much flat ground to achieve critical mass of tailgating. .

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Yeah the hills are steep, and most visitors don't know how steep until they attend a game. I tailgate on the north end of the stadium, or in the Treefort area. Maple Hill and Victory Village (or whatever they're calling the area where you can see into the stadium from the Northeast.

Honestly, I usually hit up Dickson Street and then walk over the hill. It takes 15 minutes to get from a bar to stadium entrance, and you can park all day for $5. I can imagine if it was flat around campus that we'd have one of the best tailgating scenes around, because people do pour a lot of money and energy into it. It just isn't practical. Unless you're paying an event company to load your shite in for you, you aren't doing anything but the Gardens. If I am going to be that far from the stadium, I'll just walk around Dickson Street with my to-go beers (since you can do that).